Five of football’s most famous off-field performers

Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli has been in the headlines again, but he isn’t alone as a misbehaving footballer.

This time around he was snapped coming out of a strip club in the early hours of Friday morning before a match the next day.

It is the latest in a series of incidents the Italy international has been involved in, though many have been of a more bizarre nature than what seems a disappointingly normal situation for a current Premier League footballer to be in.

However, when it comes to shenanigans off the playing field, football has its fair share of top candidates.

GMF was inspired by the most recent episode in the Balotelli soap opera and decided they would pick out five of the English top flight’s most notorious mavericks.

Dwight Yorke; Manchester United, Aston Villa

Yorke was part of a famous striking partnership with Andy Cole under Sir Alex Ferguson at United, but he was also famous for getting into a bit of romantic bother off of it.

One other famous partnership he had was with then team-mate Mark Bosnich and four unidentified young women in his luxury home, which he also filmed.

Duncan Ferguson; Everton

Duncan “Disorderly’ as he was otherwise known, once went to prison for three-months after a headbutting incident. The former Rangers man also became famous for interrupting a burglar at his home and meting out his own brand of justice.

As well as this, the big striker was sent off eight times in a single season.

Joey Barton; Manchester City, Newcastle United

It is safe to say Barton was something of a tearaway in his early days at City, where he once stubbed out a cigar on the eye of a youth team player and also admitted assault for an attack on then team-mate Ousmane Dabo.

Barton was sent to prison after being found guilty of assault and sentence to six months in prison.

Paul Gascoigne; Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur

Gazza was once meant to be England’s golden boy but a liking for partying left much of his potential unfulfilled.

One famous incident was when he and some England colleagues took part in the infamous “Dentist Chair’ drinking game, whereby you lie back in a chair and open your mouth to have spirits poured into them.

He parodied this incident with a celebration after scoring for the national team in Euro 96.

George Best; Manchester United

He wasn’t from this era but the late George Best was possibly the most famous footballer whose off field actions brought as much attention as what he did on it.

Considered by many to be the greatest player to have ever lived, Best’s life was that of a superstar when he first broke into the Manchester United first team. He was famous for his long sessions and a penchant for beautiful women.

There we have some of football’s most colourful characters and off-field ‘personalities’.

Comment below to let us know what you think of the list and leave us some of your own suggestions…

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